FundForum International is the “must attend” annual asset management conference. The 2010 event continued that tradition, 20 years in the making. On behalf of our co-sponsors, CACEIS & KPMG, we would like to thank all the delegates and speakers and look forward to bringing you an even more energised event in 2011.
In addition to the coverage of the event by Beverly Chandler, we’ve gathered the leading articles and commentary from the business news websites to give you a comprehensive review of this years hugely successful event.
We have captured a series of video interviews with some of the industry leaders which will be posted on this site over the coming weeks. To make sure you don’t miss out, either add the RSS feed to your reader or sign up for email alerts.
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A Twitter Overview:
reutersClaireM: IBM’s Suzanne Duncan stirred up the Forum with research that showed the trust gap between providers and investors has worsened this year
reutersClaireM: Marshall says doesn’t regret not gating in crisis although assets collapsed. Believes hedge fund industry did itself no favours by gating
Dumes618: Fund Forum Exclusive: AEGON appoints Citi as Fund Administration Service Provider to a new Global Macro Absolute Return Fund
reutersClaireM: Broderick says as Europe transfers burden of retirement provision to private sector, it will expect costs to fall.
JenLoewiAdams: Regulator Eddy Wymeersch says not often that he gets to talk face to face with the industry, so thumbs up FundForum#ffi10
reutersClaireM: Faber believes prospects for active mngt are good and a lot of passive strategies will face limitations in volatile low growth world
Fund Fees and self-loathing in Monaco - Financial News
The number of attendees rose this year by a fifth compared with last year. More than 70 companies had stands at the Grimaldi events centre, located on the Monaco beachfront, including KPMG, JP Morgan and Citigroup.
Each morning delegates attended lectures and panel sessions featuring leading industry figures such as Jamie Broderick, chief executive in Europe for JP Morgan, Todd Ruppert of T Rowe Price and Jim McCaughan of Principal Global Investors…. more here
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Chiefs told to concentrate on clients - Financial News
The first step in solving any problem is to admit you have one. Amid the yachts, Ferraris and champagne receptions, delegates at the annual Fund Forum conference in Monaco did precisely that.
The tone of the conference was set at the start by speaker, Jamie Broderick, chief executive of JP Morgan Asset Management in Europe. He said the asset management industry needed to focus more on clients, and those who did not would be left behind. Investors were concerned about three issues, he said: high fees, an obsession with creating products rather than finding solutions, and a lack of clarity about what was really going on with their money…. more here
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The full round up by Claire Milhench of Reuters can be viewed here. We’ve put some of the key topics from her review below.
Marshall not so gaga for Osbourne - Reuters
Lord Myners played a cheeky game of bull and bear with Paul Marshall, the co-founder of hedge fund company Marshall Wace, at the close of his Q&A session at the Fund Forum in Monaco this morning… more here
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Doubts grow over fund firms’ Asia dash - Reuters
Asset managers are ramping up their presence in Asia to tap the cash of the growing middle class but some industry managers are warning that the quick bucks these funds are chasing may be elusive. Establishing an identity and building distribution networks takes time. Regulatory bottlenecks and a stubborn attachment to traditional bank savings will also act as a brake on business.
“Asia will continue to hog the limelight as a source of new assets but it won’t be the next gold rush,” Amin Rajan, chief executive of consultancy Create, said at the Fund Forum in Monaco…. more here
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Allianz plans to boost PIMCO with new hires - Reuters
Allianz Global Investors, the funds arm of German insurer Allianz (ALVG.DE), plans to add about 100 staff this year, with bond manager PIMCO the biggest beneficiary as investor appetite for fixed income products continues. AGI Chief Executive Joachim Faber said the head count had increased across the entire group by 100 people last year and he expected to repeat that this year.
“The PIMCO business is growing very strongly so it has had the most people added,” said Faber in an interview on the sideline of the annual Fund Forum in Monaco… more here
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Fund Managers under pressure to rebuild trust - Reuters
Fund managers have failed to rebuild relationships with investors that soured when the global financial crisis left them nursing billions in losses, leaving their clients even more disgruntled.
Trust between fund managers and their clients has continued to deteriorate two years on from the crisis, a survey by research organisation IBM Institute for Business Value showed, and managers at the Fund Forum in Monaco said the industry faces an uphill task to restore clients’ confidence. “We’d be kidding ourselves if we thought that our institutional or our retail clients thought we (as an industry) did a good job in the downturn. We need to be more transparent and keep products simple,” Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN.L) said. … more here
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Reprieved fund firms face up to failings - Reuters
Fund managers meeting in Monaco this week for their annual summit may have been given a reprieve by last year’s stock market rally but it helped to paper over the fundamental cracks identified at the 2009 conference.
Industry bigwigs such as Martin Gilbert of Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN.L) and John Flint of HSBC Asset Management (HSBA.L) will debate the best business models for these turbulent times, with managers who fail to reposition their businesses likely to find themselves in difficulty. The 2010 Fund Forum conference, which runs from Tuesday to Thursday, comes at a time when the sovereign debt crisis has triggered another bout of volatility and investors are showing a reluctance to load up on equities… more here
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Fund firms see second wave of M&A - Reuters
The asset management industry is poised for a fresh round of consolidation as economies teeter on the edge of a fresh slowdown, leaving weaker operators rescued by the 2009 rally looking vulnerable all over again.
Delegates to the industry’s annual Fund Forum in Monaco are expecting further M&A, with smaller firms struggling under the weight of new regulations before being picked off by larger rivals, while continuing financial turmoil is expected to put more balance sheets under pressure…. more here
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To view articles from the Financial Times, you must have a subscription, details here
Call for greater transparency on EFTs - Financial Times.
Greater calls for transparency have dominated talks at this year’s Fund Forum. Several chief executives say the market needs to make an effort to restore … more here
Fund managers told to embrace new rules - Financial Times
Fund managers attending last week’s Fund Forum in Monaco were told to embrace new regulations rather than fear them. … more here
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Nordic Fund Selectors panel at FundForum International - FundSelection
Successful panel with Nordic fund selectors The room was packed when I moderated a panel with fund selectors from the Nordic region at the FundForum in Monaco this week. It was an honest discussion and the public was very pleased with the openness of the selectors… more here
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Paul Marshall offers caution on UCITS - WSJ
A founder of one of the U.K.’s largest hedge funds has warned that investors may be “disappointed” in the more heavily regulatedUCITS funds, which have increased in popularity since the financial crisis… more here
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Fund managers gathered here perhaps got a little indigestion along with their breakfast at the first address of the day - MarketWatch
The managing director of Cerulli Associates got things off to a rousing start with a prediction that global funds under management this year are unlikely to repeat the not-so-spectacular growth from last year — a 16.2% gain. But there was even more gloom tinged in that. Shiv Taneja, addressing a crowded room of early-rising managers said that gain from 2009 came wholeheartedly from a recovery in markets… more here
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Double Dip? Better Be Nimble And Quick - MarketWatch (video)
Invesco portfolio manager Bernard Aybran talks about the dangers of a double dip recession for global economies and keeping a portfolio protected… more here
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Keeping the customer happy and the money flowing - MarketWatch
Tall orders, but those seem to be the general themes for this week’s Fund Forum International, which will gather over a 1,000 asset allocators and 35 chief executives in the small sovereign city-state surrounded by France, known best for its status as a tax haven and refuge for wealthy foreigners.
Whereas last year gathered a group of shell-shocked asset managers who were looking for day-to-day strategies for survival, this year, managers and CEOs will be looking for ideas on how to create sustainable, long-term gains at a time when markets are volatile and investors still haven’t had their faith in managers fully restored… more here
